We are all in this together

The republic is still standing.Barack Obama is still our president. The Democrats still control the Senate. The Republicans still control the House. And the Chicken Littles are still squawking as if there will be no tomorrow.Yes, we have a divided government but would we want it any other way? The phrase "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" wasn't coined in a vacuum.What we don't want is a divided house in the context so eloquently expressed some 150 years ago by Abraham Lincoln. Living and breathing the "us against them" mentality is poisonous whether it's Democrats vs. Republicans, the 99 Percent vs. the 1 Percent, or Northern Californians vs. Southern Californians. We are a nation of individuals who can set aside our differences when it comes to the common good. That is our strength. The notion that if we don't march in lockstep somehow means we are going down the toilet is crazy talk.To accomplish such a feat it would require a country where government controlled by the will of the majority forces absolute conformity across all lines whether it is political, cultural, or even personal dress.Having everyone agree on everything will not make America stronger or solve any of our problems, just as wearing an American version of the infamous Mao suit would not solve our ills.Yet that is exactly how some of us think it should work.There is no virtue in being a philosophical bully whether one is liberal or conservative.That brings us to some of the reaction to Tuesday's election of what can best be described as being uttered and blogged by sore losers and sore winners. Such talk only inspires anger and kills any chance of finding pragmatic solutions to what ails us collectively.It is rooted in the assumption that because one man won - Obama - and one man lost - Romney - that somehow everything is going to be hunky-dory or America has just shifted into overdrive in its bid to reach hell.This may come as a surprise but one man - whether it is Barack Obama, George Bush or whoever - does not drive the economy. Nor for that matter do 465 men and women in Congress. The economy is powered by 312.8 million people making individual decisions based on need, desires, wants as well as perceived fears and optimism.General George Patton understood the real key to success. It wasn't brilliant generals as much as it was front-line soldiers. And in reality, we are all soldiers in the war on poverty and in helping build the strength of our economy.It's that freedom of individual empowerment that makes this country different. It is also why we tend to be the nation of entrepreneurs with the ability to feed a global appetite for everything from food and knowledge to higher living standards.We are far from perfect and we definitely aren't No. 1 in every field. But put it altogether and you have a success story that much of the globe wants to emulate.We would be progressively worse off if we had one dominant political party. We do not want a world where the party animals in the Democratic apparatus or those in the Republican power structure have absolute control.We would have higher levels of unemployment if it wasn't for those in the 1 percent helping generate wealth. Most people spend money because they have jobs. And one has to be able to earn money based on the creation of economic wealth such as toiling for a paycheck to strengthen an economy.And California certainly wouldn't be what it is today if we ever got to the point where we split the south from the north or, for that matter, the coast from the interior.Our differences are what make us strong.Both sides need to turn down the volume before our ears go deaf when it comes to the greater good.Barack Obama is our president. Respect that fact.There are 48 percent of our compatriots who don't believe he is the right man for the job; respect that fact as well.And - perhaps more important - respect the sacrifice that countess millions made who went before us to create and protect this nation, build its economy and to create its diverse culture.In short, respect your fellow Americans whether they are Republican, Democrat, or some other political stripe or simply decline to state.We are all in this together. We are all Americans.

This column is the opinion of Dennis Wyatt and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Journal or Morris Newspaper Corp. of CA.